


The Fifth Suitor of Vvinri-Ilor

by oorsprong



Series: That Unsteady Afterglow [10]
Category: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Angst, M/M, More plot, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-18
Updated: 2016-02-18
Packaged: 2018-05-21 10:22:34
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,146
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6047982
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/oorsprong/pseuds/oorsprong
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It would be so easy to pull Hux into bed; exchange drowsy kisses until sleep takes them both.  So easy to lose himself in the feel and taste of the other’s body.  A small voice in his mind reminds him that this could be all the time they have and he wants to rage against the injustice of the universe.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Fifth Suitor of Vvinri-Ilor

Kylo Ren experiences the next two days in a drowsy haze.  After the first night in the bacta tank he’s encouraged to sleep and in fact his body craves it.  It’s a dark and dreamless place he goes to.  He wonders if it’s something in the medication they’ve given him but can’t complain.  Every time his mind tries to wander to the events culminating with the destruction of Starkiller Base the wound inside-- the one that can’t be healed by the medics-- screams in pain.

 

Hux arrives the next evening and sits at his bedside.  Kylo wakes to the blissful feeling of warm fingers tangling in his hair, stroking his forehead, and cupping his cheek in tender deference to the scarring flesh.  Hux doesn’t seem to be concerned with what the medbay personnel think and this is alarming.  Then again, Kylo is so exhausted that he can’t even be sure they notice.

 

There’s something gnawing at the back of Hux’s mind but Kylo can’t pry.  Even if he wanted to he doesn’t have the strength to go looking for hidden thoughts.  Outside his partner is the perfect picture of calm.  He doesn’t say much but he watches over his bedside with his work for company and this comforts the knight more than he could have imagined.  

 

On the second evening he accesses the library portal to pass the time.  Hux may not have been serious when he suggested it but Kylo can’t bear to look at any intraship reports.  Nor does he want access to the few wide-scale news networks that broadcast from the core worlds.

 

“ _Usivvarill,”_ he says idly to the interface.  

 

A scroll of options comes up:

 

  

 

> BEST MATCH:
> 
>  
> 
> Ussif Arel - a comet in orbit around Th’br
> 
> Oosavyryl - a destructive tree fungus native to the forests of Dathomir
> 
> Usivvarill - beloved concubine of Vvinri-Ilor in Halla folklore

 

Intrigued, Kylo selects the third option and pulls up the corresponding section on Halla folklore.  It’s some sort of system-spanning mythological framework.  He accesses a holofile and two women dressed in extravagant layered robes appear before him in miniature.  One woman is tall and gaunt with a mass of narrow braids tied into a regal knot behind her head.  The other woman is small and round and bald.  The small woman begins to dance in a circle around the taller one, shaking some kind of percussion instrument.  She sings in a high-pitched voice-- almost unpleasant.  Kylo cuts the audio and watches as she weaves in intricate movements.  The accompanying text, provided in both basic and the ancient dialect of Halla, tells him that this is the story of The Fifth Suitor of Vvinri-Ilor; a folktale about the legendary prince of the last Imperial dynasty.

 

Kylo brings up a summary of the story.  In Halla’s fabled period of rule by matriarch, Vvinri-Ilor was the youngest child of the last Empress.  He was instructed to pick from five suitors from neighboring systems to make a good political match.  He rejected the first four out of love for his favorite concubine, a man he called by the “love-name” of Usivvarill, meaning, “my treasure”.

 

The knight stares at the screen in shock.

 

_“My wealth, my treasure, my jewel beyond price.”_

 

Hux’s words.

 

He frantically sorts through the information provided.  A note called “Lament to the Fifth Suitor” leads him to a fragment of the story in poetic format; a portion of the song the woman is singing that is apparently famous enough to warrant special notation:

 

 

 

> What woman or wharrem [androgyne] can hold to Usivvarill [my treasure]
> 
> His touch is the oil that ignites the lamp
> 
> His black and white eyes [dark / luminous] hold me in thrall
> 
> I am his comfort and he is mine
> 
> What woman or wharrem can hold to Usivvarill
> 
> His voice is the blade that pierces the stars
> 
> His embrace is my drawing-chain [token given between lovers, see Ibir-En (4:14:01)]
> 
> I am his comfort and he is mine

 

The two women in the holovid switch places.  The tall one dances in slow movements around the short one.  Her style is fluid and mournful.  Kylo understands immediately that she is portraying the prince himself.

 

And then what?

 

He reads with growing unease about Vvinri-Ilor’s plight.  His mother threatened to have him executed if he could not choose a bride.  The fifth suitor offered him hope.  She promised him he could keep company with his beloved Usivvarill in exchange for siring an heir on her.

 

The fifth suitor lied.  After a series of events so melodramatic and convoluted that Kylo could barely follow, she confronted the Empress herself about the prince’s devotion to his concubine and rejected him in the public forum of the royal court.  Fed up with the situation, the queen had Vvinri-Ilor executed and his concubine sold into slavery.

 

The women stop dancing and drop to their knees.  

 

Kylo closes the screens one by one, leaving the holovid for last.  For a long moment he stares into the haunted eyes of the dancers.  He closes his own and lets this new knowledge wash over him.  

 

“I don’t know what to do,” he says in the silence of the medbay.

 

***

 

Kylo Ren arrives at Hux’s quarters in the early hours of the morning.  Any healing he has left to do can be done out of bed and none of the medics are brave enough to disagree with this assessment.

 

Hux answers the door and before Kylo can lose his nerve he clears his throat and stares into the eyes of the man he’s ready to upset the balance of his life for.

 

“Brendol, _rin tasu Ilri-en har tahas Ilri-enill._ ”

 

He has the pleasure of seeing Hux speechless for only a moment before the General pulls him inside and pushes him against the wall.

 

“Hux--”

 

A hot mouth closes over his and rational thought stops.  Kylo is starved for this.  When Hux catches his tongue and gently sucks the tip his knees go weak.  He buries his face in his General’s neck, nibbling at the tender skin and leaving blossoms of broken capillaries in his wake.  Hux utters a strangled sound between a moan and a gasp as Kylo bites down hard on one shoulder.  Roaming fingers tangle in his black hair, soothe the back of his neck.  It would be so easy to pull Hux into bed; exchange drowsy kisses until sleep takes them both.  So easy to lose himself in the feel and taste of the other’s body.  A small voice in his mind reminds him that this could be all the time they have and he wants to rage against the injustice of the universe.

 

“I understand now,” Kylo says.  “You’re Vvinri-Ilor and I’m his…”  he can’t bring himself to say _beloved_ , it’s too close and fragile.

 

 _“Usivvarill,”_ Hux whispers against him, “my treasure without equal.”

 

“So how do we outsmart the last suitor?”

**Author's Note:**

> Brendol, rin tasu Ilri-en har tahas Ilri-enill.  
> (Brendol, I am your comfort and you are mine.)
> 
> 6/3 edit: Please check out the beautiful art that [Katherine1753](http://katherine1753.tumblr.com) did for this story [here](http://katherine1753.tumblr.com/post/145371553209/brendol-rin-tasu-ilri-en-har-tahas-ilri-enill)


End file.
